Sunday, June 13, 2010

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Over at Elle you can vote on which one of these ladies has the "most inspiring" body. I don't know if that squicks me out or if it's a positive thing. What do you think? And why is Heidi Montag on this list?

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

I just started summer school and I've been soooo busy! It's so hard trying to juggle all the aspects of school, home life, and art! Poor me, being privileged enough to get an education! (That was sarcasm.) I finally checked me email and I received this wonderful letter:

"I came across your site today, and it was thrilling. I've always been kind of fascinated by the beauty of the human body, and for a long time, that's all I would draw. Despite that, I've had an eating disorder for the past 12 years. For some reason my own body was never good enough. Seeing your site really gave me a boost. To be endlessly hounded with Victoria's Secret models, plastic celebs (many of which are only that skinny because of drugs), and airbrushed EVERYTHING.... it's wearing to look a yourself and see the circles under your eyes, the scars on your skin, the cellulite on your thighs. In our society we have somehow made everything that is physically feminine the ENEMY and we embrace bones. We hate and attempt to discard everything that makes us look like women. I've found that when I needed inspiration to diet or workout or even just stay healthy-- looking at the GQ or Maxim models was so depressing it was like, "Why even bother? I'll never look like that." Starving myself for so long never made me look like that. My body got bony on top and my lower half stubbornly clung to the last lingering vestiges of feminine trait. I found a picture of Aphrodite/Venus, sculptures/paintings/etc and I just felt the beauty of the woman shining through. I want to look like that, now. I know men don't have it much easier. I honestly find the uber-muscled male models to be kind of sickening. They're just as plastic as the female models.

Mission Statement

The Stripped Project exists to provide a fair representation of real beauty in hopes of repairing the damage done by the skewed depictions of the human (especially female) form in traditional media.

Manifesto

These photographs are neck-down only, front and back. These models and their photographs are un-"enhanced” and unedited in any way. These photos are not meant to be attractive or perfect or sexy, though they may be. They are meant to be honest. If traditional art is the idealized depiction of "beautiful" forms, then this is an anti-art project. This project is a protest against the current domination of pre-packaged beauty and conformist aesthetics. It is a celebration of the human form. The purpose of this project is to promote discussion. This is part photographic catalog, part documentary, part cultural commentary, part political statement, but mostly it is a revolution.

READ ME: The Stripped Project is now taking submissions!

Here are some ground rules about the blog's new policy.

By sending me your photograph, you are certifying:

That this is your photo and you own the rights to it.

That you are giving me the rights to use this photo however I see fit.

Most importantly, you are legally certifying that you are OVER 18.

Photographs should be .jpg images in the site's format: taken from the neck-down with one picture of the front, and one of the back. You can pose however you want, and with as many people as you want, as long as it's not obscene. Use common sense. I've found the best photos (the ones that are the most expressive and compelling) are usually the ones of people standing naturally, letting their body language do the talking.